Fren-03 the Holiest Place of All — Art Katz

I'm very reluctant to begin tonight, because I have such a task before me.

It will take such an enablement from heaven, because it is very heaven,.

The very essence of what heaven is, that we must understand in the earth, and express and fulfill here. It's the heart of the matter. So I'm stalling. I'm making excuses for myself, not to begin.

Something needs to be birthed. It's not so much a word to be spoken, as it is a word to be birthed. So now that you have all become daughters of Zion, you need to travail with me tonight, to bring this word out of God's very heart, and into our own.

I think I can say without false modesty or embarrassment,.

That there are a lot of valuable things that I could communicate to you.

It's an embarrassment of riches, but which of these things does God want brought forth?

That's my dilemma, and the tension in which I live, because this is my last speaking with you in these days.

And I know that God has called you to a real destiny in Him. So it's critical about the word that comes at the right moment. So let's pray together now, for the bringing forth of this word,.

Our ability to hear it with a spiritual ear,.

And to receive it in the depths of our heart, not only personally, but corporately, something that will sink right into the foundation of the corporate life that God wants established here,.

And serve you for all of the days ahead. A word that remains,.

That can always be called back, summoned back, remembered, and applied in your most critical moments,.

For they will come. You know who Basilia Schlink is?

She says that what is bliss in heaven is first pain on earth.

What is bliss in heaven? Bliss?

Bliss, a spiritual ecstasy, is first suffering on earth. So, thank you, Lord.

We ask of you great grace tonight, that we might hear your voice,.

That you would express to us your heart, even through the dust that your servant is, and through every problem of communication and language, to drop a plumb line from heaven, a standard, right into our deepest heart, our inmost being.

We thank you that we could ask such things of you, knowing that to whom much is given, much is required. But we have already established that issue with you last time, that we desire to go all the way, and therefore we need your deepest counsel,.

A living word,.

Granted tonight. We'll give you the praise and the glory and every acknowledgment,.

In Jesus' name. Amen.

The Prescribed Pattern of the Holiest Place

Now I need someone who is a good reader to read the text, save your voice. Very clear and concise. French. Who is that one? This lady here? The book of Exodus, Exodus, chapter 25, from the first verse to the 22nd verse.

It's a long statement, but we need to hear it all.

It's a long statement, but we need to hear it all. I will make a sanctuary for myself, and I will live in the midst of it. You will make the tavern and all its utensils according to the model I will show you.

They will be an acacia-wood arch. Its length will be two and a half elbows, its width one and a half elbows, and its height one and a half elbows. You will cover it with pure gold. You will cover it inside and outside, and you will make a border of gold all around.

You will melt four rings of gold for it, and you will put them in its four corners, two rings on one side and two rings on the other side. You will make bars of acacia wood, and you will cover them with gold.

You will pass the bars through the rings on the sides of the arch so that they serve to carry the arch. The bars will remain in the rings of the arch and will not be removed. You will put in the arch the testimony I will give you.

You will make a propitiatory of pure gold. Its length will be two and a half elbows, and its width one and a half elbows. You will make two golden sherubins. You will make golden sherubins at the two ends of the propitiatory.

Make a sherubin at one end, and a sherubin at the other end. You will make the sherubins coming out of the propitiatory at these two ends. The sherubins will extend the wings above, covering the propitiatory with their wings, and facing each other.

The sherubins will have the face facing the propitiatory. You will put the propitiatory on the arch, and you will put in the arch the testimony I will give you. This is where I will meet you. From the top of the propitiatory, between the two sherubins placed on the arch of the testimony, I will give you all my orders for the children of Israel.

I trust that we recognize how holy this text is. We are not approaching it as antiquarians who are interested in the antique things. That we have that kind of curiosity. Oh, how interesting.

Is that the way that it was made? If that's our mentality, we will lose it all. We will miss everything. This is not only a statement to Moses and to the children of Israel.

It's God's word to his people in every generation, and especially to the last. This is an enduring and eternal prescription of God. It's an unvarying pattern. And God will not accept another.

Do you understand how privileged we are? It's as if the Lord has lifted the veil.

That we can glimpse and look right into the holiest place of all. It's like God revealing his heart. This is what I am in myself,.

In the very quintessence of my being.

And there's hardly a way that I can express it to you. So I have to speak in terms of gold and pieces and things fashioned and formed. This was the tabernacle in the pattern that was given on the mount to Moses.

He wasn't 40 days in the cloud of smoke on the top of that mount in idleness. It was such a communion of God with man and heaven with earth. That the mountain of that revelation was wreathed in smoke.

That if so much as an animal dared come up on it in that holy time, it was to be stoned to death. Only Moses, the great apostolic figure, the master builder, the one who would lead a people from bondage to ultimate freedom,.

From Egypt to the land of promise,.

Only he could come up onto the mount.

And be there and receive this revelation which is recorded for us.

It's holy, holy, holy. God's tabernacle, according to the pattern given on the mount, in every exquisite detail, so charged with... so charged with ultimate meaning. We don't dare miss anything of it.

See to it, he said, that you make it according to the pattern. Let's not see to it, just make it according to the pattern. And the pattern of the tabernacle subsequently became essentially the pattern of the temple.

These are earthly equivalents of heavenly things.

And neither the tabernacle nor the temple yet remain on the earth today.

But the thing of which they are, the pattern and the type, remains today in heaven. It remains, it still is.

It's eternal. And it is our headquarters. It is the very throne of God. The place of his presence.

Out of which his word yet comes to his people. So this defies words and speaking. We need to approach this with great reverence. So we know that the tabernacle of God had essentially three divisions, three courts.

An outer court. An inner court. And yet one more inner than that. The holy place. And the holy of the holies. Or the holiest place of all. He says, there I will meet with you. In one place only. In the place that God himself has prescribed.

At the mercy seat. At the mercy seat. And it's that that we want to concentrate upon tonight. You know that in the outward court, it was open to the sky. And there the natural light of day was sufficient for the purposes that were transacted there.

When you came into that open court, there was the place of the washing and the altar of sacrifice. And many priests busily working with making the sacrifice and the fire and so on. And it represents for us the initial place of our life in God.

The water of the word and of washing and the blood of atonement. It's the place of initial conversion or salvation. But it's not the final place. It's not the ultimate place. But the majority of Christians today are yet in that place.

And have not gone further. They're content with initial basic salvation. They're in the sanctuary of God. In the sanctuary of God. But they're not in the deepest place of that sanctuary. There's yet a second place in which to enter.

Through a veil. And that place is no longer open to the natural light. The light in that place comes from a seven-branched candlestick. The menorah of God. It's a deeper seeing. And there's the showbread on the table.

And an altar of incense. And this corresponds to, I suppose, what we could call the charismatic dimension. The altar of incense is the altar of praise.

Which comes from basic salvation to the place of worship in the Spirit. We see now by a much more profound light. And we're seeing beyond the issues of salvation.

The kingdom of God. The body of Christ. Relationship.

Discipleship. Various things that constitute our present understanding of vocabulary. It's a wonderful place. And many of us remain there. It's so enjoyable. And the light is so much more productive. But there's yet a deeper place.

Where the very heart of God is. And there, there's no light at all. Neither natural or artificial. There's only one light. It's the ultimate light.

It's the light of God's burning presence. The Shekhinah, the Shekinah glory of God. He says, there I will meet with you. And only one man is permitted there. Once in the year. The high priest. You notice that as you pass through the tabernacle of God, there's less and less human activity.

In the outward court, many priests bustling about with sacrifice and so on. In the inner court, yet fewer priests, but to bring the showbread, to put the oil in the lamp. To keep the altar of incense.

That required a daily ministration. But in the holiest place of all.

Only once a year. Only one. The high priest. In behalf of all Israel.

Who had to come in by the blood. And God forbid that that blood should not be acceptable to God. God would kill the priest. In Leviticus chapter 16. Verse 2. The Lord said to Moses, tell Aaron, your brother, not to come at simply any time into the holy place inside the veil.

Before the mercy seat, which is on the ark. Lest he die, for I will appear in the cloud above the mercy seat. 2, 2. 16, 2.

Lest he die, for I will appear in the cloud above the mercy seat.

Access to God Through the Blood of Christ

It is good to be reminded of this. We are not speaking of any light thing.

And there is a terrible paradox here.

There is no way that you can succeed in the calling that God has given you. To be his ultimate witness in this locality, in this nation. As the community of true believers. Without the communication that comes from him in this place.

Nothing less than this will suffice. And yet it is so holy that God will kill those who come improperly. And yet in the book of Hebrews it says that Jesus entered into this place. Not by the blood of calves and lambs.

But by his own blood. Once. And for all. Elsewhere in the book of Hebrews it says. That we come into this place to find help in time of need. We are even enjoined to come boldly. Into the place of grace.

That we might find help in time of need. You are going to need that help. For your need is going to be more intense and profound than any other. Because you have committed yourselves to God for ultimate things.

So please believe that I am not speaking poetically tonight. But this is the most vital provision for you.

And the question is. Do you have the faith to enter? Have you come to that place to believe?

That though only the high priest was admitted in times past. Once in the year. You yourselves can come freely.

At any time. To find help in time of need. At the throne of grace. At the mercy seat. In the holiest place of all. Not by any virtue that you have. That any of us can have.

But because Jesus came by his own blood. Having rent the veil. Once and for all. It would be hard for me to speculate. How many Christians there are in the world. Who have the faith equal to that coming.

To that entering.

But faith comes by hearing. And hearing by the word of God.

And my hope is that if you had not the faith. Before tonight. You will have the faith because of tonight. Because of the very word that came. Gives you faith to believe that very thing. That you might enter.

Boldly. And find help. And help doesn't mean some kind of slapdash. Band-aid. Momentary first aid.

It's to receive the very counsel of God. His wisdom.

His express word. For your explicit and critical need. Because you have not been there before. Because you have not been there before. So the heart of the text tonight is verse 22. There I will meet with you.

Not in any other place. There.

And from above the mercy seat.

And from between the two cherubim that are upon it. Verse 22. And keep your finger in that place. You're going to come back to it. Thank you. I'm reading the amplified English Bible. It says there I will speak intimately with you.

The King James says there I will have communion with you. This is beyond charismatic understanding. This is not what we can get from hearing men on tapes. That we can learn about the body of Christ and the kingdom of God.

God's purposes.

This is a deeper word. A very life-giving word.

For those of us who will need it acutely. Acutely.

But only in his presence. In the place of intimate communion. And where is that place? Above the mercy seat. And between the wings of the cherubim.

Why there? Why does he dwell there? Why is that the locus of God?

And that's what we need to understand. That's the heart of the matter.

And where we need to come. And this is where I need great grace from God. God describes to us the mercy seat. Where he dwells. It is the mercy seat.

It is the most exquisite piece of furniture in the whole tabernacle of God.

Man could not have conceived of it. It is contrary to what is of man. It is a statement of God's heart itself. And it's made of gold. Pure gold. Within and without. What a statement that is in itself.

What a proclamation. What does that say to us? Within and without. Pure gold. The Lord's not satisfied with the mere outward appearance.

The mere spiritual show.

This must be of him. That's what gold is. It's the statement and the symbol of deity. Through and through. Within and without. It's the very basic requirement for the building of this piece of furniture.

The ark of God that contains the law of God. And even the wood poles that went through the rings to support it were made of wood completely covered in gold. It was all gold. God would not allow wood to be exposed.

But he allowed wood to be employed. That's us. We are the wood. The human thing. Because that's the majesty of God.

That's the glory of God.

That he permits the human thing into his very holiest presence.

But not in its own nakedness. But covered in gold. And that's a process. And it's not an easy process.

It's something which is hammered out. Beatenly. Beaten out.

Hammered. Are we willing for that? To be beat very thin.

Out of one piece of gold. And to have our humanity covered with his deity. It's a mystery beyond all speaking.

So I'm not trying to be clever tonight. And use some esoteric text.

And show you some cunning interpretation. This is the heart of the matter. Absolutely fundamental.

To the true faith. And call of God.

So picture the ark of God. This box. Covered with gold within and without. And he says in it you will place the testimony that I will give you. And he said? In it you will place the testimony I will give you.

The ten commandments. The righteous requirement of God. That goes in. What goes over. Is something also made of gold. From one piece. Called the mercy seat. And it's upon that seat that the blood of the sacrifice was sprinkled.

It's the place where justice and mercy meet. The righteous requirement of God. Which he will never ignore. He's not going to be some soft sentimental sap. And look the other way. And let us get away with murder.

Because he understands. That may be a charismatic mentality.

But it's not the divine mentality.

God's righteous requirement will never be forsaken. But praise God that's not the whole. Of the matter. Exactly where his righteous requirement is.

There in that very place. And even over it. Is the place of mercy. Where the blood is sprinkled. And that blood of Jesus.

The most precious blood. In the holiest place of all. Which fulfills God's eternal requirement. God the Father so reveres that blood. So esteems that blood.

That on the basis of that blood. He permits you to enter. If you have received the blood of Jesus. To cover your naked humanity.

And that we ourselves are called to be a royal priesthood. And to have frequent access. As often as we will. In that place.

Righteousness and Mercy Meeting Face to Face

For above that. Ark of God. And that mercy seat. And between the wings of those two angels. He says there I will meet with you. Above. And between.

I'm getting. Holy ghost chills. And I want to walk so carefully. Word by word in this. What is God saying to us. About this mercy seat where he will meet with us. Intimately.

In communion. It's between two cherubim. Who it says in verse twenty. Shall stretch forth their wings. And the wings touch each other.

They cover the mercy seat with their wings. And they are facing each other. And it says their faces shall look one to another. And it says toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubim be. How can that be?

That they should look at one another. And in the very next breath God says. Toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubim be. And that's the heart of the matter. So look at one another.

And the place of mercy. And the place of righteous requirement. All at the same time. It's a remarkable kind of looking. For which the world has not prepared us. Because how many of you even now. Would turn your eyes away. If I looked intently into you.

And yet that's what God is wanting. Face to face.

And we have missed it historically. And the very architecture of our church betrays it.

Very comfortable pews. By which we can hide in our little religious seclusion. And look at the back of each other's heads. And never be required to turn around. And face each other.

Face to face.

Little wonder that the apostle Paul speaks later on in his epistle. Of moving from glory to glory. As beholding in each other's faces the glory of God. Even as by the spirit of God. One translation says even as by the Lord who is the spirit.

Who is the spirit. You need to know how dear this is to God. You'll never move from glory to glory. Except by beholding each other's face. Face to face. These two cherubim were required to look at each other.

And I want to suggest tonight. That though they are both angels. They are different.

Contrary. Opposite. For example. The Jewish angel and the Gentile angel. The prophet and the teacher.

The Jew and the Gentile. Male and female. French and German. Face to face. For a first time. That's where I'll meet with you. When you'll come to that on earth.

As I have it eternally in the heaven. In that place. There I will meet with you. That's where my heart is. But that's exactly where you've missed it.

That's where you've turned away. That's where you've refused to see. You don't want to look. It's too painful. Too demanding. The tension. The conflict. The contradiction.

Of opposites. That's where I am. It's not an accident. That the first apostolic sending described in the scriptures. Takes place in chapter 13 of the book of Acts. You don't have to turn to it now. Don't turn to it now.

It says now they were at Antioch. Certain prophets and teachers. And among them were Barnabas and Saul. A man from Cyrene. A Mediterranean island. And one called Niger. N-I-G-E-R. Which is always the statement of a black man from Africa.

And one is called Manaen. Who was probably a gentile of a Roman kind. What a cosmopolitan church Antioch was. What diversity. In its members. Contrary to what the church of Jerusalem was. Which was all Jewish.

And I love it.

It was the first church. And it was greatly blessed of God. But it was not the place of apostolic sending. The genius of God.

And what he is about. Is the ministry of reconciliation. The bringing together of opposites. Not by some kind of cheap ecumenism. Some diktat. Some political issue of men. But that which is beaten out.

Hammered. Out of gold. Are we willing for that? For the issues that need to be hammered out. Everything that is in us. That is human and natural.

Shrinks from exactly that thing. We want to be with people like ourselves.

Who speak our language. Share our vision. Who are like us. But God is not content with that.

He brings the irritant. The contradictory thing. The opposite thing. And he says look face to face.

Don't turn away from the issues of righteousness and truth. Who are still got to kiss. With mercy. In that place. And all glory will break through. I was very interested to hear from Peter. A statement about a long standing problem in Switzerland.

Here I was in my naivety complimenting the Swiss. Unlike the Canadians. In their two cultures and languages of French and English. They are each other's thoughts. Threatening even the political stability of Canada.

Because of that national ethnic cultural pride. So I said to Dick how wonderful about Switzerland. They have three cultures and languages. And look how beautifully they get along. Outwardly. Superficially.

Technically. But the glory of God has not come in Switzerland. Dear dear children. Paul says we wrestle not against flesh and blood.

But the principalities and powers of the air.

The rulers of this world's darkness.

Which even tonight. Broods. Yes broods.

And all Switzerland. And all nations. Uncontested. They've had no obligation to be moved out of their orbit. From which place they exploit and manipulate and dominate societies. There's only one thing that can displace them.

The church. But what kind of church? A church of a particular kind. Who has risen above and contradicts what the powers of the air represent. The powers of the air have been the insignificant. Incitement and the provocation of every great war that has torn this continent.

National rivalry. National pride. Superiority. Cultural excellence. Which needs to be demonstrated on the battlefield. To the destruction of entire generations. And almost very civilization itself. Nations have been manipulated and jerked from the powers of the air.

And the churches have gone along with it.

Rather than contradicting that filthy wisdom.

By which the powers have manipulated entire nations.

Do you know what it is that will liberate men to really consider the gospel for the first time?

When the power of darkness is broken over nations and over cities. By the very presence of a people. Who themselves are no longer victim of that wisdom.

They have risen above fear. Above manipulation. Above ambition. Above lust. Above pride. National pride. Cultural pride. But how shall they come to that place? By beating it out. By hammering it out. Out of gold.

Blow by blow. Face to face. And yet at the same time look to the place of mercy. And the righteous requirement of God. It's not going to be a false unity. With three kisses in the French style. But a true kiss.

Where righteousness and mercy meet. That's what it says in the 85th Psalm. 85th Psalm. Verse 8. Through the end of the chapter. Psalm 85, verse 8 begins. I will listen to what God the Lord will say. Till the end.

God is waiting for something. Not just to bless the church. But to bless the earth.

To bless the land. And to bless the people. That's what verse 9 says, that he may tabernacle and abide in our land, his glory. That his glory may tabernacle and dwell in the land.

But what's the condition? What is he waiting for?

Where mercy and truth are met together.

Where righteousness and peace have kissed each other.

Not a little cordial peck on the cheek. But ultimate intimacy. Contrary and contradictory things. The severe requirements of righteousness and truth.

Meeting together with mercy there in that place the glory of God is released. Which is the place where he is and where he will meet with us and give us all that we need in requirements to speak commandments unto the children of Israel.

All things which I will give.

You're going to need all these things as well as the commandments and the authority to speak them. For that word of speaking will be an event.

That will bring something into the land.

By those who have obtained it in that one place. There I will meet with you only there above and between in that place of ultimate tension and contradiction of opposites. There and only there will I meet with you.

Apostolic Reconciliation in the Church

But what cowards we are. How many of us have how many of us have fled from exactly that place. The divorces in the body of Christ are a scandal. Because we can't take the tension.

We can't get along. We're no longer compatible. He doesn't understand me. Or he's contrary where she is. And that's enough for us. Isn't that why we change churches? We can't stand the tension of contradiction and opposition.

And yet that's the heart that we've got. And that's the place where he says he'll meet with us and give us all that we need in that place.

I call this the epicenter of God.

We must come to it in the ingredients.

That are inherent in our situation and as God himself will give them. In Acts 13 in that church of such diverse national and ethnic men now there was in the church of Antioch certain prophets and teachers.

Not only were they different and contradictory in their racial and ethnic makeup their cultural origins Jew and Gentile.

Black and white but they were also prophets and teachers. The two most contradictory callings in God yet both given by God just like the two cherubim. God always gives it in twos male and female Jew and Gentile.

You think that's a picnic? Try and live with one for over 20 years.

Even as a believer talk to my wife about that. I didn't know what a Jew was really until I had lived with a Gentile. My God, what a different mentality what a way of viewing things.

I'm the man of the tent and the altar. I'm ready to pick up and go.

Like my father Abraham but my wife has a different mentality. She likes to collect things.

Bric-a-brac and antiques and put things on walls. She likes the permanence the security the visible enduring things which to me mean nothing.

And the very thing that delights me paralyzes our will. It paralyzes her with fear for her it's very insecurity. Where will we go? What will we do? It doesn't matter to me. I'll follow him in the land he will show me but I can't go.

There's a wife there. You see the genius of God. And what is a prophet and a teacher?

A prophet is a visionary he sees the larger purposes of God and he has little patience for the teacher who has line upon line and precept upon precept. Who says, but where do you see that in the word?

And the prophet says, mon Dieu I know it, it's in my spirit it's a revelation now. There were in the church of Antioch certain prophets and teachers and men of ethnic and racial difference and when they ministered unto the Lord and fasted.

The Holy Ghost said not a committee on evangelism.

Or a church with a sense of religious responsibility the Holy Ghost said.

In that moment that he found those men in all of their differences.

Ministering unto the Lord together he said, ok now separate unto me.

Paul and Barnabas for the work when to have called them. So after the rest had fasted and prayed they laid hands upon them and they being sent forth where the Holy Ghost went. And what a going that was.

It was the beginning of everything. These are they that turned the world upside down. Two men these are they which turned the world upside down because they are contrary to the world.

And the spirit of the world and the wisdom of the world.

That loves to celebrate its differences and the superiority based upon that.

We are French those Germans we Jews those Gentiles we prophets those teachers. We would like to do it by ourselves but God says no two cherubim not one whose wings touch face to face and yet at the same moment looking down at the ark of God and the ten commandments the righteous law of God who is not willing to forget the real issues.

This is not some cheap reconciliation.

Which was forget it brother. Buy guns be buy guns.

No this is where truth and mercy meet.

Let's examine the issues. Why do we feel this way. What kind of history have we shared.

Why this resentment and irritation. Why this fear.

There I will meet with you and in no other place and there I will give you all male and female black and white French and German fathers and sons logos and rhema structure and spontaneity.

Family interest and community interest young and old your generation and an older all of the elements that make up for difference and contradiction and tension.

Is where God is in that place above and between wherever opposites and contradictions meet in the place of ultimate tension.